2005, Justin Jennings, Kathy L. Antrobus, Sam J. Atencio, Erin ...

298 F current anthropology Volume 46, Number 2, April 2005
which it could be used at feasts. Longer shelf life allows
these beverages to be curated and exchanged over greater
distances and, as we stressed, facilitated staggered production
and centralization. The commentators further
point out that this also helped to sever the link between
producers and consumers and allowed these drinks to
rise to the level of haute cuisine. These additional points
reinforce how changes in production chains, coupled
with technological and cultural innovations, can lead to
substantial changes in political economy. If rice beer had
remained unpasteurized, what would have been the implications
for the Shang Dynasty? What if the Incas and
the earlier civilizations of Peru had found a way to keep
corn beer fresh for years?
McGovern and Samuel note possible errors in the article
that should be addressed. McGovern argues that
wine yeast (S. cerevisiae) is not airborne. It is true that
S. cerevisiae spores do not generally become airborne,
being contained in an asci that does not rupture at maturity.
We never said otherwise. What we said was that
pulque was either fermented using a starter containing
wine yeast or left open to airborne yeasts. During this
open fermentation process, there are many different varieties
of airborne bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms
that can contribute to fermentation (Sanchez-
Marroquin and Hope 1953). McGovern also suggests that
the term qu is more widely used than jiu ou to refer to
the fermentation agent used to make rice beer in China.
A great many fermentation agents were used, and these
terms changed over time. Jiu ou was one of these terms
(Xu and Bao 1999), but I agree with McGovern that the
more common term chhü (or qu) is the one that we
should have used (Huang 2000:117).
Samuel mentions possible errors in our definition of
hydrolysis, our description of the interaction of starches
and water at low temperatures, and our definition of
malt. I fail to see any error in the first two, and the third
claim is based on what I feel is an overly narrow definition
of malt. Hydrolysis is the breakdown of organic
materials through the use of water. Starch is a homopolysaccharide
of D-glucose units joined together by an
a1,4-glycosidic bond. Hydrolysis breaks the bonds in the
long glucose chains that form starches. For hydrolysis to
occur, starch grains must come into contact with water
and the enzymes that can break down the bonds. Starch
grains are often resistant to penetration by water at room
temperatures because the attraction of hydrogen bonds
makes them wind tightly together. Heat weakens these
bonds (Goyal 1996). We chose not to go into detail, but
our general account of the biochemistry of alcohol production
was accurate and well referenced.
Samuel is correct in faulting our implied definition of
malt within the traditional schema of the brewing of beer
made from wheat, oats, and barley, in which malt is
created through the germination of seed grains. We used
the term “malt” to designate any starchy substance that
has been introduced to enzymes capable of breaking
down starches into more simple sugars. This definition
of malt is more inclusive of cross-cultural brewing practices,
and I feel that we made clear how we were using
the term. I would welcome a discussion with Samuel on
these issues and possible others.
The commentators agree on the importance of linking
food production to feasting in the archaeological record
and have offered a number of fruitful avenues for further
inquiry. Gastropolitics is immensely important, and we
must remember that it began long before the first toasts
were made. By tracing the operational chains that produced
the food and drinks consumed at events, we may
be better able to understand the pressures that hosts
faced and the means by which they overcame them.
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